Chapter 7
Reese walked out of his office just as Nick was entering the squad room. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Two minutes to spare. He watched as Knight also peeked at the clock, and a smile tugged at the corner of the captain's mouth. He'd gotten his point across.
Good. Just how long the impression would last, he wasn't sure. Knight could be a little too headstrong and independent for his taste sometimes.
Joe looked down at the message in his hand and frowned. Things wouldn't be quiet tonight. The body of a young girl had been found. They had a child killer on their hands. Scum didn't get any lower than that, and his determination to get a person off the street didn't get any more intense. He wanted this guy yesterday.
The captain moved to join Knight and Vetter at their desk. Nick stood over his seated partner. They were both smiling. It was good to see. They were getting closer, and their partnership was starting to gel. Granted, it was happening slowly, but they were getting there.
As he stopped at the desk, Reese caught the end of what Tracy was saying. "Well, I'm glad you found something, Nick. I knew you would." The captain's presence garnered her attention right away. "Hi, Cap." She read his mood instantly and her smile dropped. "Got a new one?"
Reese nodded. "Yeah. It's bad."
"How bad?" Nick asked.
"Teenage girl. She was found nude," Joe responded.
"Possible rape," observed Tracy.
"Yeah." The captain continued. "The uniforms at the scene said it looks like she was beaten pretty badly, but no real evidence of fatal injury except the bruising around her neck."
"Strangulation," Nick stated simply.
Reese agreed. "Probably. Natalie's on her way. The uniforms are waiting for you." He paused, looked meaningfully into Nick's eyes, and then added, "I want this guy. I want this guy soon."
Nick held out his hand for the piece of paper containing the location information. "Understood, Cap."
Joe Reese handed over the message and watched his best team head out the door. He hadn't been at the precinct more than thirty minutes and already his stomach was nudging him. God, he hated cases like this. He reached in his pocket, pulled out an almost empty roll of Tums and hoped he had some more stashed in his office.
"I wonder...?" Detective Vetter thought out loud.
Nick looked over at her and then back to the road as they made their way to the murder scene. "Wonder what?"
Tracy turned her eyes from the passenger's window of the Caddy to the driver. "Well, I've got a friend in missing persons, and the other day over breakfast she mentioned that there's been a sudden increase in missing children reports over the last couple of weeks. She said they have absolutely nothing to go on in these particular cases either. It's pretty weird. Apparently kids have been disappearing right from their beds and..."
"Their beds?" Nick interrupted her. "And nobody has heard or seen anything?"
"Yeah," Tracy nodded. "Hard to believe, isn't it? Nobody inside or outside the homes remembers hearing or seeing anything unusual. The kids didn't make a sound or were very effectively kept from making a sound. Anyway, my friend said there've been four reports like that from different parts of the city. All middle to upper class neighborhoods. No one has called asking for any kind of ransom. The kids just vanish. The department's set up a special task force and is debating whether to risk the possibility of starting a panic by issuing a public warning. None of the kids have been found dead. Yet. This could be the first one." She stopped and pondered a second. "Although...now that I think about it...I believe Braxton said the victims were running around the ages of five to eight, so this probably isn't connected after all. I guess I've just got the missing kids on my mind. Ever since Braxton told me about the case, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It's very disconcerting. Home is the one place children are supposed to be safe from the predators of this world."
Nick sat silently for a moment as he absorbed what Tracy had just told him. The whole thing sounded suspiciously like it could be the work of a vampire. Although with no bodies it would be difficult to confirm, and if the vampire was careful, which most were, there would be no bodies. On the other hand, the scenario was not totally out of the realm of possibility for a mortal to have perpetrated--a very cunning, very practiced mortal.
His thoughts were interrupted as Tracy continued. "I guess for a cop in these modern times I'm being a little naive, but I just can't help it. 'Safe at home' should mean something."
Detective Knight glanced affectionately at his young partner. The intrusions had really upset her. "You're not naive, Trace. You're right. 'Safe at home' should mean something, and it's our job to see that it does. They don't have any leads at all?"
The young detective shook her head as she looked out the front window. "No. Nothing. I've talked to someone who I thought might have been able to help, but he couldn't tell me anything."
A knowing half-smile curved Nick's mouth. So the thought of a vampire had crossed her mind also. Apparently she'd gone to Vachon who had evidently told her that a member of the community was not involved, or that he didn't know anything one way or the other. Nick would have to go see the Spaniard and find out just what he had to say on the matter.
"I know it's hard, but try not to let it get to you too much, Trace. You have your job to do, and missing persons has theirs. All we can do is our best and hope that it's enough. Sometimes it is, and, unfortunately, sometimes it isn't. All we can do is our best." The vampire tried to sound encouraging, but fell a little short. Looking on the bright side of things was not one of his fortes, after all. But did a situation like this even have a bright side? Somehow he didn't think so. Finding the children unharmed was a slim possibility at best. And even if they were discovered alive, they would still be scared for life. The harm had already been done.
The young woman in the passenger's seat looked at Knight's profile, a sad smile on her face. "I know, Nick. It's just frustrating to realize that most of the time our best isn't enough. There's so many of them, and so few of us. Sometimes I feel so helpless."
"Well," Nick took a deep breath, "we've got another chance tonight not to feel helpless. Like Reese said, 'I want this guy.' Let's see to it that we get him. Okay?"
Tracy nodded. The detectives finished the trip immersed in their own thoughts.
It was several hours later before the detective team was able to make its way to the morgue to talk to Natalie about her additional findings, if any. They had gotten to the scene earlier that night to find the coroner already at work. At first look, she had confirmed their suspicion about strangulation. A phosphate test would confirm the rape, but from the amount of damage evident in the vaginal region, the test was only a formality. Natalie guessed the girl had been dead about 24 hours.
The two officers entered the autopsy room to see Nat bent over the girl's right hand, taking scrapings from her nails. Tracy had avoided the body while at the scene, doing the job of questioning possible witnesses while Nick examined the remains and talked to Natalie. The shock of seeing the badly beaten body stopped the rookie detective in her tracks. Whoever had done this didn't stop at the rape. He'd made the girl suffer in other ways before ending her life. Vetter covered her mouth with a hand as a muffled "Dear God" escaped her.
As Nick looked into Tracy's face, he confronted the same horror he'd seen in Nat's a few hours ago at the scene. Seeing the murdered girl, who they now knew was all of twelve, had conjured up Natalie's painful memories of her godchild, Cynthia. He had recognized it the minute he'd looked into Nat's eyes. She had tried to hide her feelings under her professionalism, but he'd seen her struggle to hold back the tears as she'd stared down at the lifeless young body. When he had walked up beside her to ask if she was all right, she'd looked up at him with a heart-wrenching sadness in her eyes and whispered, 'She was just a baby, Nick. Just a baby.' His arms had moved around her automatically, and he'd held her close as the need to protect and comfort her pushed every other instinct into the background. She hadn't given in to the tears, but stood quietly within the circle of his arms, seeming to draw strength from his nearness. He'd held her for as long as she would permit. When a uniformed officer approached them, she'd pulled away and continued her examination of the body.
Nick put a comforting arm around Tracy's shoulders as Nat carefully placed the evidence from the girl's fingernails into a container. Casting sympathetic eyes on the younger woman, the coroner acknowledged her visitors. "I hope you guys have come to tell me you've got this bastard behind bars already." Her earlier sorrow was turning into anger, and it reverberated in her attitude.
"Not yet, Nat, but we had luck questioning the neighbors around the playground where the body was found." Nick gave Tracy a reassuring squeeze and walked over to the table. Looking down on the extinguished promise of a young life, he too felt Natalie's rage. He raised his gaze to the doctor and forced a slight smile. "No one actually saw or heard the murder, but we've got someone who claims he saw a stranger lurking around the area where the body was found about nine last night. Says he was walking his dog and got a good look at what he thought was a suspicious character walking past him under a street light. I know it'll be a miracle if this stranger is our man, but not everyone is a criminal genius. Maybe we'll catch a break with this one." He paused to flash Tracy, who had eased up beside him at the table, a meaningful look.
His partner was starting to come to terms with the sight of the body and was ready to be part of the conversation. She'd caught the look and understood what it meant. Nodding slowly, she agreed. "Yeah, not so helpless this time."
For the moment, Nick ignored the curious look Natalie gave him and continued. "Our witness couldn't identify any mug shots. He's with the artist now giving us a composite. Were you able to confirm the time of death?"
"Twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The body was outside for a while, and the cold conditions have interfered with the findings, but only slightly. Oh, and she was raped. Have you had a chance to check with missing persons in order to try to identify her?" Dr. Lambert pulled the sheet over her patient's head.
"Mary Huntsfield." Tracy still looked a little green around the gills as she gave the Jane Doe a name. "She disappeared on her way home from school three days ago. We just found out a few minutes ago." She pulled a facsimile out of her coat and handed it to Nat. "Here's the ID picture. She was only twelve. Her birthday's next month. God, who would do this?"
The coroner's frown deepened as she pulled back the sheet and glanced from the faxed photograph to the young, still face on the table. "The picture's a bit rough and her face is distorted by the beating, but it's her." She studied the piece of paper a moment before handing it back to Tracy. "She looks like such a sweet child. What a senseless waste. A life that barely had a chance to start...." Nat's voice faltered as she struggled against painful emotions. "It's disgusting. It's infuriating."
Tracy bowed her head in agreement before she spoke. "We're waiting to get the finished composite so we can show it to her parents when we notify them. See if they recognize him." The young detective fell silent a moment and then sadly shook her head as she continued. "I hate the idea of waking them up in the middle of the night just to tell them their daughter's been brutally raped and murdered."
"Well, I don't know how much sleep they've been getting the last couple of days, but I don't think you have to worry about it, Trace." Nick tried to ease his partner's mind. The idea didn't appeal to him either, but notifications never did. "I think the captain 'll see it your way. By the time the composite's finished, it'll be late enough that he'll probably want to wait the extra few hours and have the day shift tell them."
Some of the tension drained from Vetter's features. "I hope you're right."
Nick motioned toward the examining table. "Is she going to be able to help us catch her killer, Nat?"
For the first time that night, he watched a satisfied smile cross the doctor's face. "Yup. I got skin, hair and blood from under her nails. There's enough for matching purposes. It looks like she was able to mark her attacker pretty good. When you find this guy, he'll more than likely have visible scars. Probably on his face or arms. Provided, of course, you find him soon enough."
"We will." He wasn't certain why, but the immortal had a feeling the 'suspicious character' seen walking in the neighborhood was their man and he hoped they would be able to get their hands on him quickly, because Nick had a gut feeling about one more thing. This man wasn't through killing.
Natalie replaced the sheet. Pulling off her elastic gloves, she tossed them into the biohazard bag as she joined the pair on the other side of the table. "So you don't have any idea who the perp could be?"
"Not really." Nick shook his head. "Since our witness couldn't identify any known, local person, this guy could be from out of town or even out of country. We'll send the sketch out and see if we have any luck identifying him through those channels."
"But what if this isn't the man walking under the street light? What if he was just a guy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
Nick read the concern in Nat's face. He could tell she was worried about them wasting time chasing the wrong man, concentrating on one person and possibly letting the real killer slip through their fingers. She didn't want this to happen to any other innocent child. She wanted the person who did this out of circulation as soon as possible. They all did.
He knew she was more upset about this whole thing than she was letting on, especially after her reaction at the scene. He also knew that she was well aware of procedure. But her emotions were getting in the way. He understood completely and tried to reassure her. "Well, Nat, we have to identify and talk to him no matter what. We'll check locations and alibis of possible repeat offenders. And even though we've got the interviews from the missing persons file, we'll have to do them again. Talk to the people at Mary's school and the people in the neighborhood where she walked on her way to and from class. See if anybody remembers anything new. Show 'em the composite. If we run up against a lot of dead ends, we'll have to look at it from a different angle. Maybe this is the first time this guy, whoever he is, has done anything? If it is, he'll be harder to get a handle on, but we'll get him."
Natalie took a deep breath before looking into Nick's eyes. "I'm sorry. I know you know what you're doing. I don't mean to be pushy or question your investigation. But this makes me so mad I can't see straight. I just want to get this creep off the street."
"I know, Nat." His voice was quiet with compassion. As he looked back into her sad face, Nick wished he could say or do more to ease her pain, but he knew the only thing that would give any of them any kind of peace would be the capture of this killer.
The ringing of Tracy's cell phone interrupted the short silence. She pulled it out and addressed the caller. "Vetter. Yeah? Okay. Thanks." She pushed the phone back into her pocket. "That was the captain. He said the composite's finished. He wants us back at the station A.S.A.P."
"Anything else you can tell us right now, Nat?" Nick took a step towards her. He wanted to reach out to her, to hold her as he had at the scene, but he held himself in check.
The doctor shook her head. "No. I'll send the samples I found under her nails to the lab. We should be able to get a blood type. And if we do get a suspect, we'll have skin and hair samples for comparison. That's about all I can tell you for now."
Tracy flashed Natalie a quick smile as she turned toward the door. "Okay. Thanks. We'll check back later." She then eyed her partner. "You comin'?"
Knight nodded. "Yeah. I'll be with you in a second."
"I'll meet you at the car." Detective Vetter disappeared through the door.
Nick walked up to Natalie and placed his hands on her upper arms as he looked into her solemn, tired face. "Are you going to be all right? I know this has stirred up some painful memories."
Doctor Lambert closed her eyes as she nodded. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. But you're right...." She gazed up into his face. "Every time I look at that innocent child I think of Cynthia. I just can't help it. It's all so senseless." Her voice cracked with the tears that once again threatened to overcome her.
"Nat?" As Nick searched Natalie's tortured face, the pleading look in her eyes silently bade him to once again afford her the tender comfort he'd provided earlier that night. He pulled her close. She stood stiffly in the circle of his arms for a moment as she battled the sorrow. He then felt her relax. She rested her head and hands on his chest as he hugged her closer.
Neither one spoke while he cradled her in the safety of his embrace, the immortal allowing the mortal to vent her rekindled grief. He felt the sting of her tears as the moisture penetrated his shirt to settle warmly on his cold skin. He closed his eyes and laid a cheek on the top of her hair as the tears quietly flowed. After a few minutes, he felt her stir. Raising her head, she looked into his eyes. "I'm sorry, Nick. I--"
"Shhh, Nat." He lifted a silencing finger to her lips before wiping the wetness from her face. He didn't want an apology from her. What little comfort he was able to give her, he gave freely, willingly and happily. He would stand in the warm shower of her tears for as long as she needed him to and would be honored by her reliance. Leaning forward, he placed a light kiss on her forehead. "I guess I'd better get going before Tracy comes looking for me."
With a half-hearted smile, she looked up at him, gratitude shining in her swollen eyes. "Thank you."
He raised a finger to capture a stray tear as it slid down her cheek. "Anytime, milady. Anytime." He returned her smile and bowed his head. "I'll talk to you later." Another quick kiss on her cheek and he was gone.
End Chapter 7